| Here’s a look at today's tech briefing: - Disney+, Hulu and Max streaming bundle is coming.
- Neuralink brain chip implant experiences malfunction.
- Apple faces backlash over iPad ad.
- TikTok to auto-label more AI-generated content.
- Diabetes app recalled over software defect.
Beth
p/beth-duckett | |
| 1 | | Disney and Warner Bros. Discovery will offer a streaming bundle with Disney+, Hulu, and Max in the U.S. starting this summer. The bundle will offer both ad-supported and ad-free options, with prices yet to be disclosed. More: - The bundle marks the first cross-company partnership for any of the leading streaming services.
- It aims to streamline billing with a single payment and provide a discount compared to individual app subscriptions.
- Users will be able to buy the bundle from the websites for Disney+, Hulu, or Max, formerly HBO Max.
Zoom out: - In March, Disney widely launched its combined streaming app of Disney+ and Hulu, which it owns.
- Disney+ and Hulu posted a $47M profit in the last quarter, up from a $587M loss the year before.
- Disney's ESPN+ still lost $65M, making its larger direct-to-consumer business $18M in the red, though this was a huge narrowing from previous quarters.
- Disney anticipates its streaming business will turn a profit in Q4.
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| 2 | | Neuralink reports that its brain-chip implant experienced a malfunction in its first human patient. Neuralink said some threads retracted from patient Noland Arbaugh's brain, impairing the implant's effectiveness and data transmission, although the company was able to compensate for the error. More: - In January, Neuralink implanted the brain-computer interface in Arbaugh, a quadriplegic paralyzed in a diving accident in 2016.
- The "Link" system uses 1,024 electrodes on 64 threads, each thinner than a human hair, to record neural signals.
- Arbaugh, 29, uses the device to move a computer cursor and play video games with his mind.
Update: - Neuralink now says some of the chip's connecting threads retracted weeks after the surgery, reducing the number of effective electrodes.
- Although Arbaugh's safety isn't at risk, Neuralink briefly considered removing his implant.
- Neuralink was able to improve the device's performance with software fixes, surpassing Noland's initial results.
- Arbaugh still uses the system for 8 hours on weekdays and up to 10 hours daily on weekends.
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| 3 | | Apple is facing backlash over an advertisement for its latest iPad Pro. The "Crush!" ad displays artistic tools and analog instruments being compressed by a hydraulic press, revealing the new iPad Pro. Critics say it heightens concerns about creative jobs being replaced by technology. More: - The ad was released Tuesday and now has over 860,000 YouTube views, with comments disabled.
- Apple CEO Tim Cook shared the ad on X, highlighting the new iPad Pro's "advanced display" and powerful M4 chip.
- "Just imagine all the things it'll be used to create," he wrote.
- Cook's post drew over 14,000 replies, most of them critical, as AI automation displaces human-held creative jobs.
Zoom out: - Actor Hugh Grant called the commercial the "destruction of human experience."
- Paul Graham, venture capitalist and Y Combinator cofounder, suggested Apple's ad would insult Steve Jobs.
- Critics noted the ad's departure from Apple's iconic "1984" Super Bowl commercial, which symbolized the company's rebellion against conformity.
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| 4 | | TikTok is intensifying efforts to auto-tag AI-generated content on its platform. TikTok claims to be the first social media app to use Content Credentials, a digital watermark to identify images, videos, and audio created with generative AI. More: - Content Credentials attach metadata to track the origin and editing history of AI-generated content.
- The "nutrition label for digital content" can be viewed by users.
- While TikTok already tags in-app AI-generated content, the new policy will extend the labels to content created with outside AI tools, such as OpenAI.
- OpenAI's Dall-E, for example, adds the watermark to AI images, which are detected and labeled when uploaded to TikTok.
Zoom out: - Content Credentials are led by the Coalition for Content Provenance and Authenticity, a group co-founded by Adobe.
- The technology is integrated into Adobe tools like Photoshop and Firefly.
- Google, Microsoft, OpenAI, and Meta said they will support the standard.
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| 5 | | A software defect in a diabetes care app has triggered insulin pump malfunctions, injuring at least 224 patients, according to the FDA. The agency identified the defect in the iOS app, t:connect mobile, as a "Class I" recall, the most severe type due to risks of serious injury or death. More: - The app's creator, medical device maker Tandem Diabetes Care, issued a recall for version 2.7 of the app,
- The app works alongside the company's touchscreen insulin pump.
- Tandem's recall is due to a software bug causing the app to crash and relaunch repeatedly.
- This drains the insulin pump's battery via excessive Bluetooth communication.
Zoom out: - Tandem says the battery drain may cause the pump to shut down unexpectedly, though the app alerts users with an alarm and low-power notification.
- To fix the software defect, customers should update the app to version 2.7.1 or later.
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| 6 | | 75% of all knowledge workers currently use AI at work, and most are using personal AI tools that are hidden from their employers, according to a new report. LinkedIn and parent company Microsoft released their 2024 Work Trend Index Annual Report, which focuses heavily on AI. More: - The report shows three-quarters of knowledge workers, or those whose main capital is knowledge, report using AI in their jobs.
- Nearly half started to do so within the last six months.
- Users report that AI helps them save time (90%), focus on critical tasks (85%), improve creativity (84%), and increase job satisfaction (83%).
What else: - Nearly 80% of these AI users "are bringing their own AI tools to work," meaning they are "keeping AI use under wraps," according to the report.
- Knowledge workers of all ages use personal AI tools at work, from 73% of Boomers to 85% of Gen Z.
- 52% of AI users at work hide its use on key tasks, while 53% fear it makes them seem replaceable.
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 | AI and technology writer | | Beth is a contributing editor and writer of Inside's AI and Tech newsletters. She has written for publications including USA Today, the Arizona Business Gazette, and The Arizona Republic, where she received recognition with a Pulitzer Prize nomination and a First Amendment Award for collaborative reporting on state pension cost increases. You can reach her at Beth.Duckett@yahoo.com. | | This newsletter was edited by Beth Duckett | |
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